All Blacks open The Rugby Championship season with a win

New Zealand opened their Rugby Championship account with a 27-19 win over Australia in Sydney on Saturday.

It was a tale of two halves. The Wallabies first took an early lead but The All Blacks did enough in the opening forty minutes of the match to bag four competition points as they kicked off the inaugural championship with a hard-fought victory.

The All Blacks scored two tries, both from set scrums which were the best moments in the match. The match ended with the Wallabies uncomfortably close to the All Blacks, who were the better side. That way it was so close is probably testimony to Wallaby resoluteness.

The scrums were a mess, line-outs were better. Wallabies handling errors were too many to grant them a good game. The All Blacks won the turnovers and in the first half enjoyed the quick ball. For some reason Will Genia preferred slowing down the game and it worked against his side. The Wallaby try came when he allowed his team to play quickly.

The second half became a battle of the boots as Carter and Barnes exchanged penalties. But, even after drawing the second half 9-9, the Wallabies weren't able to bridge the gap.

The result also means Richie McCaw and his merry men have taken a giant stride towards holding onto the Bledisloe Cup which has been in their possession since 2003.

Man of the match: All Blacks flanker Liam Messam repaid his coaches' faith by carrying his impressive Super Rugby form to the Test arena, while halfback pair Aaron Smith and Dan Carter proved once again to be a lethal combination. But the player who stood head and shoulders above the rest was Israel Dagg. The star full-back caused havoc whenever he touched the ball, bagged a try for his efforts and set up another.

Moment of the match: You just can't keep a good Dagg down! With only centimetres to work with, Dagg's 13th-minute touchdown after skinning his opposite number on the outside takes the cake.

Villain of the match: Despite an improved second half from Australia, they were unable to atone for Kurtley Beale's critical blunders in what was an error-prone performance by the full-back who will carry some self-inflicted psychological damage to Eden Park after letting in both of New Zealand's tries.

The scorers:

For Australia:
Try: Sharpe
Con: Barnes
Pens: Barnes 4

For New Zealand:
Tries: Dagg, Jane
Con: Carter
Pens: Carter 5